Full Interview with Foster Carer Moyra
What has surprised you most about greyhounds since becoming a foster carer?
Where do I start? I think the biggest surprise has been just how adaptable they are given everything they've come from. These dogs have often spent their entire lives in a kennel environment, with very little exposure to normal domestic life: they don't know what a vacuum cleaner is, they've never walked on wooden floors, some of them have never even been inside a house. And yet they adapt with this quiet grace that I find remarkable every single time. Within days, sometimes hours, they work it out. They watch you or their foster brothers/sisters, they figure out the rhythms of your home and they slot in.
The other thing that surprised me was how emotionally intuitive they are. People tend to think of greyhounds as athletic animals first, but they are deeply sensitive creatures. They pick up on your mood, they seek out comfort, they form attachments quickly. Some of our fosters who arrived the most shut down and fearful ended up being the most affectionate once they felt safe (like Chloé for example who’s on trial to be adopted at the moment).
Is there a foster dog that particularly stole your heart or taught you something special?
There have been so many over the years, but if I'm being honest, one dog comes to mind immediately and I don't think that will ever change. His name was Dusty.
I remember the day I picked him up like it was yesterday. He was so physically unwell, so painfully thin, that I genuinely didn't understand how he was still alive. It's one of those moments that stays with you, standing there looking at this dog and struggling to comprehend what his body had been through. And yet when I looked at his eyes, I saw it immediately. The sweetest soul. This quiet, steady look that told me he knew he was safe now, that he wanted to live, that he had so much left to give if someone would just give him the chance.
It took a long time to heal him. Getting his body back to where it needed to be was a slow process, and then finding him the right home on top of that. But we got there. Dusty now lives a very happy life on Phillip Island, and I genuinely cannot think about him or about that first moment I saw him without my eyes filling up. He was one of those dogs that reminds you exactly why you do this.
Instagram post about Dusty with the photos I took when I picked him up is here
The other one who will always have a piece of my heart is Holly. She was an elderly greyhound, and if Dusty taught me about resilience, Holly taught me about grace. She was the gentlest creature you could ever dream of sharing your home with, so quietly happy just to be inside, around people, living an ordinary domestic life. When you considered what she'd come from years of racing, having had litters of puppies and then saw how effortlessly loving and content she was, it was deeply moving. There was no bitterness in her, no wariness. Just this soft, sweet presence that filled the whole house. Everyone who met Holly adored her. She was impossible not to love.
Article featuring Holly and Benny here
Bonus:
Okay I know I’m only supposed to pick one, but the other dog close to my heart is obviously Benny, who never got adopted and stayed with us for many years (he had health issues, major spinal cord surgery etc and at some point I think Chris wasn’t ready to let him go). He was the perfect foster brother for all our other dogs, so gentle and calm with them. Benny is also the first and only dog we had to say goodbye too, he passed away on April 12, 2024.
The project epsiode featuring Benny’s story is here
What would you say to someone who is thinking about fostering but isn’t quite sure yet?
I'd say that most of the fears people have about fostering are understandable but tend not to play out the way you expect. The biggest one is always "I'll get too attached and won't be able to let them go." And yes, you do get attached, that's not something to avoid, it's actually part of what makes you a good foster carer.
But letting them go doesn't feel like loss in the way people imagine. It feels like success. It feels like the whole thing worked. And then someone new arrives and needs you, and your heart just makes room.
I'd also say that you don't need to have a perfect setup. You don't need a big house or a yard or a completely free schedule. You need to care, you need to be willing to learn, to be patient and you need to communicate well with the rescue group. Gumtree Greys is incredibly supportive: you're never doing it alone.
If you have a partner or housemates who are on board, that helps enormously. Chris being invested in this alongside me has made everything more manageable and more enjoyable. Having that shared commitment makes the harder moments much easier to navigate.
How does it feel knowing you’ve helped 16 greyhounds start new lives?
It's one of those things I don't sit and think about too often day to day, but when I do, it genuinely catches me off guard. Sixteen dogs who each went on to have a family, a couch to call their own, someone to love them. That's sixteen completely different outcomes that might have looked very different without fostering. I feel incredibly grateful that I've been able to be part of that, and that Chris has been right there alongside me for all of it.
What’s one quirky or lovable trait all greyhounds seem to share?
The teeth chattering has to be up there. It sounds like they're cold but they're actually just beside themselves with joy. It's one of the most endearing things and it never fails to make me smile no matter how many times I've heard it over the years.
And then there are the coats. Greyhounds have very little body fat and a fine single coat, which means they genuinely feel the cold and actually need to be rugged up in cooler weather. But the result is this elegant, statuesque animal trotting around in a little fitted jacket looking impossibly stylish and somehow completely aware of it. They wear them with such dignity. People stop us on the street constantly.
List of fosters, we are actually up to 18 now:
Ruby
Jane
Nudge
Mandy
Yankee
Pluto
Charlie
Zazoo
Dusty
Violet
Benny
Bobby
Peewee
Zoe
Holly
Chloe
Suzie
Tyson
What inspired you to become a foster carer for greyhounds?
Coming from overseas, I had absolutely no idea that dog racing was even a thing here.
When I first learned about it I was genuinely shocked, both that it existed and what the industry meant for the dogs once their racing days were over. Learning about the conditions they come from and the sheer number of them needing homes inspired me to become a foster carer. I wanted to do something about it rather than just feel bad from a distance.
At the same time, the more I learned about greyhounds as a breed, the more I realised how perfectly they suited my lifestyle. We were living in an apartment at the time, which might sound like an odd fit for a large dog, but greyhounds are surprisingly well-suited to smaller spaces as they’re calm, they sleep an enormous amount and they don’t demand constant activity the way a lot of other breeds do. They matched the rhythm of my life.
Once we connected with Gumtree Greys and understood that fostering could offer that flexibility to help without a permanent commitment, I was in.
You’ve fostered 16 dogs over six years. What keeps you coming back?
A big part of it is that it genuinely fits my life. I travel a fair bit and have a busy schedule, so fostering gives me the flexibility that permanent ownership doesn't always allow. It's also become something Chris and I do together, it's very much a team effort and that shared purpose is something we both love.
But honestly, the deeper answer is watching what happens to these dogs over the weeks/months they spend with us. So many of them arrive having had a really difficult start to life, the racing industry is all they've ever known and for some of them it hasn't been kind. They come through the door shut down, guarded, sometimes fearful of the most ordinary things. A television. Stairs. The sound of someone laughing. Things that should be completely unremarkable are entirely foreign to them.
And then, gradually, something shifts. You start to see little glimpses of who they actually are underneath all of that. A dog who wouldn't come near you in the first days starts following you from room to room. The tail that was permanently tucked starts wagging. It's incremental and it's quiet, but it is one of the most extraordinary things to witness: an animal slowly remembering or maybe discovering for the first time, that life can be safe and good and full of comfort. That they are allowed to just be a dog.
That's what keeps me coming back. You become a little addicted to being part of that transformation. And because Chris and I tend to take on the more complex cases, i.e. dogs with health issues or behavioural challenges that need extra patience that process of coming out of their shell can be even more profound. It makes the work feel genuinely meaningful in a way that's hard to replicate elsewhere.
And of course, every time a dog leaves for their forever home and another one arrives, that whole journey begins again with someone new. Each dog is completely different, and yet that moment when you see them truly relax and start to show you their personality, that never gets old.
